To ask, what's the worst parental mistake you have made in good faith?

[Havingitall]

As end of term approaches the kids and I were looking back over the highs and lows of the last school year. One incident stood out. World book day. I sent my daughter in wearing a bonnet and an empire line dress - take your pick of the Bennet sisters - but my son (14 and autistic) loves the Simpsons so with a yellow swim hat, some face paint, a shirt, jeans and a cushion, he made a fabulous Homer. That night they came home keen to talk about their day. DD quite happy, DS less so. Turned out my son's book day at school was the following week. He got off the bus that morning, well, you can imagine. Because he is the first to be picked up in the morning I hadn't noticed anything was wrong. I asked him what they said, and he replied "Mrs X said, 'Don't worry, we can wash it off"...."
By way of footnote we did turn disaster into triumph the following week when he reprised his role and came back with first prize, but both kids have spent the afternoon revisiting - I suspect this is a maternal gaffe never to be forgiven or forgotten.

Sent dd to party for the time it was finishing. Sent same dd to nursery in her own (very bad choice) of clothes having agreed to 'brush' her very long hair with just my fingers (v bad morning). Arrived at nursery to collect her that evening to be told they'd had the photographer in that day (and i'd been told about it) I was mortified. Randomly the photos still look nice?! Don't know how that happened.

DS broke his collar bone and I took him to A&E five days later. He was only little and he basically self cared for it - not using it, holding is behind his back etc. They X-rayed and put him in a collar & cuff. We walked to the car and I had to take his arm out for the car seat straps. He never put it back on! Point blank refused

With DD recently I had an epic fail. The tooth fairy forgot to visit. Something to do with MN and too much wine.

She duly arrived the next night. All was well until DD appeared in my bedroom holding a pot FULL of teeth.
Mummy, I found this in the kitchen!

I came clean. She cried her eyes out. She's 9. I felt terrible.

I've lost track of the number of times I've accidentally pulled DS's wrist/elbow out of their sockets momentarily. I blame him, he always twists away when I'm trying to lead him somewhere!

Also didn't realise he had something (soft!) stuck up his nose for 4-6 weeks. Oops.

'Forgot' to send my dd with a packed lunch. Didn't even think about it till 4 pm that day!!!!!
In my defense she only has packed lunch one day a week, was my Ds Sports day! Also in my defense she's 9 and said nothing herself!!!!

I have forgotten snack pots for school a few times, and forgot about nursery photos once. Luckily both DDs happened to be wearing something decent-ish for that.

When my DD1 was about 7, she was headachy and out of sorts for a day or two, but I didn't really do anything about it until her temperature shot up on the second day. I then took her to out of hours, and got told off for not bringing her in sooner, because they thought she might have meningitis. She didn't - it turned out to be a nasty virus.

When DD2 was about 4, DH was swinging her around inside the house, and accidently cut her head open on a metal bolt thing on the door. It was pretty bad - her skull was visible, she had to have her head glued in hospital and now has a one-inch scar just below her hairline.

I forgot to pick up ds1 from school when he was in reception.
I have forgotten non uniform days, arrived at parties late.
I forgot to pick up ds2 from a French trip- his teacher brought him home. I did send a box of chocolates the next day as a thank you.
I also left Dd in Argos when she was a new born. I had 3 under 5 and was knackered though in my defence.

I'm a terrible mother (hangs head in shame).

Sending my kids to a school with excellent Sats results & Ofsted - it turned out to be a really pushy, shitty school who only valued the very talented dcs....we left but I wish I'd gone with my gut.

I used to send DD1 to nursery in the lovely leggings & top set someone had given us.
Having said no no not pj's definitely daywear to h & keyworker walked into m&s to see the same set in a different colour (obviously new season) in nightwear section.
Misread/misinterpreted sports relief parentmail email and sent DD1 in school pe kit & walked into breakfast club to find all the other children in their own clothes.
Plenty of bumps & bruises along the way too but these stick out for me

Driving out of hotel car park onto motorway in France and voice of 3 yr old DD from the back saying "will someone do my seat belt please?"

Middle of night feeding 3 month old DS1 the chair I sat in was under a sloping ceiling in a corner of his room. I thought I felt him fill his nappy and without thinking automatically lifted him to smell to confirm. Whacked his poor head hard against the ceiling .
Thankfully no damage done, but there could easily have been. Almost 14 years later I still cringe.

Also when he was 8 left him for 5 days with a broken arm before taking him to A&E. He had fallen off neighbour's monkey bars. In my defence he was quite happy to punch and wrestle with his little brother so I didn't think he had really hurt it until he fell over and landed on it again. X Ray confirmed a greenstick fracture with some early healing so initial break must have been after original fall. He does enjoy reminding me of that one!

I put ds who was 6 months old at the time, in his infant carseat all strapped in and drove off. As I went round a roundabout his seat rolled across the backseat and landed upside down on the other side! I'd strapped him in to the seat but hadn't strapped the seat in to the car! He was hanging upside down by the straps, luckily not bothered and uninjured!

I wrote the time wrong on DSs party invitations 'when are all my friends getting here mommy?' It's not something I'm ever going to live down.

DH tried to take a dress off DD1 aged approx 1 year without realising there were poppers at the neck you had to undo. When it wouldn't go over her head he panicked and started pulling harder and harder while she started screaming. There then followed about 6 years of her being scared of any clothing that went over her head, everything had to have bloody buttons. She's ok now (age nearly 10) but she STILL doesn't like anything with a smallish head-hole.

The worst mistake I've made is allowing my children to become addicted to biscuits. I blame my parents, they brought me up on coffee (yes really) and biscuits from a young age and I am unable to have a drink without a biscuit. I didn't learn from their mistake and all my kids are the same as me.

Oh yes also completely forgot the same friend's birthday party two years in a row having RSVPd yes (and didn't get an invitation the following year!)

Also DH was 45 minutes late to pick DS age 4 up from a softplay xmas party with an afterschool activity group of his (I was singing in a concert at the time). Made worse by the following facts, a) party finished at 8pm so already well late for a 4 year old b)obviously the softplay had closed by that time so they were sat outside in December c) he'd only been going to the club a few weeks so the poor woman that had to wait with him barely knew him d) woman waiting with him tried to ring me approx 9 million times but my phone was off due to me being in a concert and she had no contact details for DH. e) it was slightly my fault as didn't remind DH of time to collect/thought he knew but in my defence why didn't he think it odd that our 4 year old was still out partying at nearly 9pm???

muddlingalong to be fair, there's hardly any difference between pyjamas and top-leggings sets for little ones. I also had a favourite top for at least a year before looking at the care label and realising it was part of a pyjama set (bought online in the sale).

I don't know about mistake, but I missed DS singing with the school choir in assembly. I had no idea it was going to happen. Poor little DS wondered why no one had come to see him :(

Sent DS to son in non-uniform a whole month early. Also, first time we ever took him out in his pram, aged about three days old, we very carefully strapped him in with the reins but completely failed to attach the carrycot bit to the wheels so as we lowered the pram over the front door sill the whole carrycot came off the wheels and landed on its side on the pavement. We were so shocked we just picked it up, attached it and started walking without even checking if baby was OK (he was).

Ds1 wouldn't take a bottle, I was determined that ds2 would, so we introduced it really early, all was going fine until DH managed to trap the top of ds2s ear in the lid of the bottle as he put it back on at the end of the feed. Poor ds screamed and screamed and still now (age 6) has a little notch in the cartilage of his ear. Never touched a bottle ever again.
I managed to drop my phone on baby ds's head while trying to mumsnet and bf in bed. 😳 He was so greedy he didn't notice but I was nearly sick.

I regularly send DD3 to preschool in pjs because they look just like non pjs and she doesn't wear them as pjs at home. She bloody loves them. Her spare outfit being pjs was a mistake though. They actually do look like pjs so God knows what I was thinking.

Have forgotten to strap her in a couple of times but she always tells me before I've actually moved.

Recently my four year old found my 'present stash'. This is the place where I have syphoned away her excess birthday/christmas presents so that I can quietly re-gift them to others (she gets a LOT of gifts as she has heaps of aunts, uncles, friends, grandparents etc). My mistake, I shouldn't have hidden the stash under the bed!!!

When I couldn't cope any longer with DD1s night wakings...she was over 2 and had never slept all night...I was once again woken up after about an hour's sleep at 2.ooam and just thought "No. I'm not going in to her" and I ignored her and went back to sleep through the yelling.

When I got her up in the morning, she was covered in sick. :( She'd been ill or cried herself sick and I'd slept through it. She was fine...just vommy....I was devastated but desperate!

Also...the tooth fairy forgot to come TWICE on a run.

icecapped I really don't understand the dunking babies thing! I never did it to my dc as it just seemed mean.

Biscuitbrixit - I had PND and, as I said in my first post, dreadful anxiety. I thought I was helping him learn to swim. Like the thread title suggests, I was doing it in good faith. The swim course and instructors tell you that it isn't distressing and as a first time mum in my state, I believed them. I wasn't trying to be "mean" and I'm not sure why you've called me up on it tbh. As this thread proves, we've all done things we regret.

Anyway we stopped those lessons and my toddler loves swimming and jumping into the pool.